As Long As I'm With You
by MerlinianTardis
Summary: Merlin manages with Gaius' help save Freya and escape from Camelot with her. But Arthur is close behind, the prince isn't going to let his servant away that easily.
1. Chapter 1

He knew Freya didn't want him to do it, but it was what he wanted and she was too weak to say anything against him. The corridors were empty, Arthur and all of the knights and most guards were out looking for the beast, Freya, so he didn't have to hide away to avoid uncomfortable encounters as he ran down it towards Gaius' chambers. Fortunately, Gaius was in when Merlin stumbled through the door, panting.

"What on earth is going on boy?" Gaius raised his eyebrows.

"You got to help… Freya… Arthur wounded her…"

"Merlin…"

"Gaius, please! I'll take her out from Camelot, if you please help!" Merlin pleaded.

The old physician sighed. "Where is she?" He packed down some ointments and bandages in a bag. He hesitated, and then packed down a book.

"Thank you Gaius,"

"Now show me the way boy,"

The way back didn't go as quickly as Merlin had wanted it to, but Gaius was old and couldn't run as fast as the young boy. "Gaius, hurry up!" Merlin said impatiently, afraid that in this pace they would be too late. It felt like forever until he got back to her. The druid girl hadn't moved from where he had left her and she lay very still on the dirty floor and Merlin feared the worst, but then she made a slight movement from the sound of their steps. She seemed a bit scared to hear not only one but two people. Maybe she thought it was the knights that had found her.

"It's me," he said comfortingly and kneeled beside her. She smiled faintly up to him. "Merlin…"

"Gaius is here too, he's a physician. We're going to help you."

"Merlin… it's too…" late she whispered.

"No it's not, he said determined. "Gaius is going to look at your wound, okay? Don't be scared. I'm here right beside you." he took her hand into his as Gaius carefully opened up her dress to see to the wound, "It's very deep," the physician said.

Merlin didn't like the tone on his voice, "But you can save her, can't you?"

"I don't know," the physician said quietly and Merlin felt his heart sinking in his chest.

"But you can," Gaius said.

Merlin frowned, "How?"

"With your magic, that's why I brought the book. Hopefully we'll find a healing spell in it that will work."

Merlin nodded. Gaius packed up the book and paged through it, "Ah, here. I think this one will do." He gave the book to Merlin and pointed on the spell.

The spell wasn't very long and as he spoke the words out he felt the warm tingle from the magic in his hand and fingers. Nothing happened and Merlin sunk down, both at the seemingly failure and the exhaustion from the use of magic, he wasn't accustomed with using his magic to heal serious wounds.

"It doesn't work," he said.

"Try again. Harder this time," Gaius pushed him.

He concentrated and said the words again. And then, finally the wound started to slowly close down until a tiny scar, that and the blood on her skin and dress was the only evidence that there had been a wound there at all. He felt a little dizzy from the exhaustion and his eyes got teary of relief. Gaius patted him on the shoulder.

"How do you feel?" he asked Freya uncertainly.

"It tickled and itched at first, but it feels really good now I think…" her fingers traced over the scar. "It's completely gone," she said surprised. She looked up at him again, "Thank you Merlin," She got, with Merlin's help, into a sitting position. Shyly she looked at Gaius, "and I guess I have to thank you too,"

"No need for that child," Gaius answered. "You two need to get out of here. I'll go get you horses and food. Meet me outside the castle in 30 minutes," They agreed on a more specific place to meet and Gaius left them alone.

"Are you strong enough to go by yourself?" Merlin asked Freya.

"I don't know…" she looked down.

"Here I help you up," she flinched a little when he touched her arm. "It's okay," he comforted. She relaxed. It turned out Freya was only able to take a few steps and Merlin had to carry her in his arms the rest of the way. She snuggled up tighter to his chest and rested her head on his shoulder, her fingers playing with the edges on his neckerchief.

Gaius showed up at the appointed place in time. "I could only get one horse," he explained. Merlin nodded that it was okay, beside the old physician walked a brown mare. She was packed with saddle bags and blankets. Merlin helped Freya up in the saddle and wrapped one of the blankets around her. She was already wearing his jacket but he wanted to make sure she was warm enough in the chilly night air.

"Will you be okay?" Gaius asked with concern.

"Yes of course," Merlin tried to smile, but failed.

"You're not coming back are you?"

"Probably not, I'm sorry Gaius, I…" he cast a quick glance over his shoulder on Freya, who braided the mare's mane.

"No… I understand, come here!" Gaius took the boy in his arm and hugged him long and tight. "I'm going to miss you. You filled my life with colour again."

"I'm going to miss you too,"

Distant barks brought them back to realization and Merlin hurriedly mounted up on the horse behind Freya.

"Take care of yourselves, both of you. I'll take care of Arthur," the old man said. He and Merlin charred a last look at each other before Merlin kicked the horse in the sides and sent her of into a gallop.

"Gaius!" The prince's voice echoed between the stone walls. Slowly the old physician turned around to see a slightly angry Arthur stride towards him. "Have you seen my useless slop of a servant?"

"I thought he was with you, my lord?" Gaius said with an innocent voice.

"No, if he was I wouldn't ask you where he was,"

"Then maybe he's up in his room? Have you checked there?"

"No, and you shouldn't be out here at this time of night. There's a beast… Merlin is with the druid girl isn't he?" Arthur's voice was filled with betrayal.

Gaius hesitated, but then nodded reluctantly. How could Arthur have come to that conclusion so quickly?

"Where are they?" Gaius didn't answer Arthur stepped close and grabbed the collar of the old man's shirt. "Tell me where they are or you'll be a head shorter."

"I will not tell you because I don't know. Merlin wouldn't tell and they were gone before I could find and stop them." The old man said. For several seconds Arthur glared down at him and then let go, pushing him away. He turned around and started shouting for his men.

"Merlin is with that druid girl. We need to find them as soon as possible. She's very dangerous and could harm him. And there are wolves out there and Merlin can't even walk through the castle at daytime without stumbling into trouble."

"But my lord," Sir Leon said. "Merlin's just a mere servant. Is it really necessary to bother about them? They probably aim for the boarders and once they're over they're not Camelot's problem anymore."

"My father wants that druid at all costs which you are very well aware of Sir Leon," Arthur said coldly, "And Merlin is my servant!" he then hissed, Leon flinched, surprised by the sudden outburst, "And I want him here in Camelot, do you understand? I'll deal with the treason he committed myself," Arthur was well aware that the punishment for anyone helping someone of magic was death, and if someone was going to punish Merlin, he wanted to be the one doing it. Merlin was his servant and it was no one else's job but his to do so. But a part of him wanted to have Merlin by his side, here safe and sound in Camelot, just the thought that the younger boy was out there alone with the druid girl made him feel cold inside. What if he hadn't followed with the girl by own choice? She was a druid and certainly knows magic; she could have forced him, taking over his own will and everything. Merlin may be just his servant, and a lousy one too, but Merlin was also his friend, his best friend. And Merlin had never really looked up at him for being a prince but had insulted him from the very beginning and Arthur actually admired that, Merlin had treated him like no one have done before. God, Arthur really wanted to have that bloke at his side right now. Leon was regarding him with raised eyebrows, but he knew better than say against his prince. "Well then, let's go."

They hurried out to the courtyard where the horses waited and set off. "Release the dogs," Arthur commanded and the dog's men did as he told. By the way they were running it looked like they picked something up and Arthur hoped it was Merlin and the druid and not just some wild animal. They could barely see anything in the dark, but Arthur forced his men to continue the search. He overheard some of them calling this madness but he tried to ignore it. He knew the men were tired and probably hungry, it was way past midnight now and it was impossible to see much at all, but stubbornly as he was he urged the men on. After what felt like hours they reached a stream and the dogs spun round on their places, whining. They had dropped the scents.

"We stop here for the night and we will continue the search by first light."

"But my lord-," Sir Leon began.

"I am your prince and you will do as I say. If I say we stop here for the night, we stop here for the night."

"But we have no food."

"Then fix food. I'm sure there some fish in the water."

But it turned out food wasn't a big issue because most of the men went to sleep right away.

"I'll take the first watch," Arthur said and made himself comfortable sitting with his back against a tree, his mind was too full of thoughts to be able to sleep anyway. Watching his men going to sleep, he thought about Merlin with mixed feelings. He felt anger and betrayal because Merlin could have left with that druid by own choice, and he felt worry because the druid could have used magic on Merlin that made him take her away. He pondered over what to do if it was the first option that was the true one until Sir Leon woke up to release him from the watch and it was those thoughts that followed him into sleep.

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**A/N: This fic is already finished, and was from the beginning without chapters, but both my beta and I thought it would be best with multichapters, so this is going to be 4 chapters long and I will probably publish 1 chapter a day.  
**

**And of course a huge thanks to WistfulGallifreyan for beta:ing this! **


	2. Chapter 2

The forest was dark and only a little light from the moon came through the trees above them. Merlin knew it was madness riding this hard when it was so hard to see. He and Freya lay as close as possible down over the horse's neck to avoid eventual low branches as much as possible. Several times Merlin felt twigs scratch over his head and back. He tried his best to hide their traces with his magic and thankfully they had the wind at their backs so it would be difficult for the dogs to catch their scents. But Merlin feared they had picked it up because the barks came closer, but were still far away. They came to a small stream of water and Merlin steered the horse into it and followed it leftwards. The horse snorted as she trotted through the water and drops splashed up on her two riders.

"The dog won't pick up our trail if we ride in the water," Merlin explained.

They followed the stream for maybe two kilometres or so, until the dogs' barks had become more distant again. Now the sun had started to rise too and Merlin decided it was safe to stop and rest a little. The horse had grown tired from running half of the night and Freya had fallen asleep so he carefully laid her down and then even dared making a fire, it would be light soon enough anyway and he would hear the dogs long before Arthur and his men would reach them. He fetched some water by the stream and kicked the pebbles, an idea struck his mind, one of those ideas Gaius would claim mad, but it was really an excellent idea. He put the cauldron aside and kneeled beside the water and ran his fingers through the pebbles. Soon he found one suiting his purpose and took it and the cauldron back to the fire. First he prepared the breakfast and while it cooked he examined the little stone closer. It was as dark grey as lead. The surface was smooth from being worn down by the water. It had an oval shape and was about one inch high and half an inch wide and flat with round edges. He starred at it, dumbfounded with no clue on what to do at all. He had never done a protection spell before and didn't know what words to use or anything at all. Well he did know some keywords but it was that he didn't know how to use them, and things would end up bad if they were used in the wrong way. He tried creating a few spells inside his mind, mixing the place of the words and bending them in different forms, whispering them silently as to taste them, as to get a better sense whether or not they would work. Finally he found one he thought would work. It was pretty simple and he doubted it would be strong enough, but if it worked the least, it was something. And he knew it depended on how strong the curse had been.

He took up a dagger from one of the saddlebags that Gaius had packed and carved the druid's symbol for 'protection', he remembered seeing it once in one of Gaius' books and thought it would help to improve the power from the spell. He could have used magic to carve out the symbol, but he found it peaceful doing it by own hands. When it was finished he spoke the incantation. After a few seconds the symbol started to gleam faintly in dark purple. He smiled for himself. Now he just needed something to attach it to. After looking around for a while he found a leather string. This time he used magic to make a little whole, big enough to run the string through it, and the necklace was finished. Proud he gazed at his work then continued finishing the breakfast.

Freya woke up just as Merlin poured up the porridge in two bowls. He smiled at her when he saw she was awake and handed her one of the bowls. "Sorry it's not the best food, but it will do," he excused with a sheepish smile.

"It tastes delicious!" she said after a few spoons. But everything was probably better than whatever Halig had given her, if he had been giving her food at all to say.

"We'll continue as soon as we finished breakfast," he said. She nodded. "And yeah," he continued, "I have something for you."

Curiously and a little suspiciously, the druid girl looked up from her bowl at the necklace Merlin held in his hand.

"What's that?" she asked, with her eyes slightly narrowed.

"May I?" Merlin made a motion that he wanted to tie the necklace around her neck and she nodded that it was okay. "It's a protection necklace. If it work it will help you control the bastet, whether it's keep you from changing or just help you control yourself while you changed, I don't know. If it doesn't work, we did I try and if it only worsened the situation you may eat me up," he explained as he tied the necklace around her neck, the last thing he said with a little chuckle.

"No, why would you say that?" She asked in a sharp voice.

"It was only a joke." He tried laughing it away.

"Why would anyone ever joke about being eaten up by a beast?"

"Euhm... the joke was that you could eat me up because I'm a stupid dollop head for making your situation worse. As a punishment, sort of… but let's hope that doesn't happen. I'm not that tasty anyway. Look just bone, no tasty fat or anything."

"You stupid," she said, but he could see a tiny smile in the corner of her lip. Then she looked down at her bowl again.

"Why are you doing this?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why are you doing all this for me? Helping me…"

"Because I want to,"

"But you have even seen me, the bastet, and you still don't see me as a monster? You're not scared.

"No, why would I? None of this was your fault."

"You healed me, even if I said it was too late, that the wound was too deep. You should have left me to die," she looked up at him again. "But I'm glad you didn't," she smiled and leaned closer and lightly kissed Merlin on the cheek. "Your magic is stronger than I first thought, I felt it when you healed me and I don't think you are aware just how powerful it is," she said.

Now it was his time to look down. The only one to really acknowledge his magic as something good was his mother and Gaius.

"It must have been hard, living in Camelot and having to hide it," Freya continued sympathetically.

"Gaius' pretty amazed that I've managed to keep my head between my shoulders," Merlin laughed.

"I can understand that, the way you're risking your life,"

"Euhm…" but he was interrupted by dog barks, it had been almost gone whole morning but now it was not too far away and Freya looked frightened towards the direction from where the barks came from.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to let them get you," in an incredible speed Merlin packed their things and Freya was still too weak from the blood loss so Merlin helped her up in the saddle before mounting behind her. With a few words he exterminated the last traces of them from the camp and then dug his heels in the horse's sides. He knew the dogs had finally real caught of their scent, Merlin had been slightly careless hiding it, and mostly focusing hiding the traces from the horse's hooves, mostly because he didn't know how to extinct one's smell, because the dogs' barks only came closer and closer. He felt Freya tense in his arms.

In an attempt to shake off the dogs and the knights from Camelot Merlin stirred in the horse on small twisty paths where vegetation grew thick. As soon as the path parted in a narrow turn he turned the horse on it. He knew it would be harder for the knights as a big group to follow them. The dogs sounded really close now but the trees grew thick so Merlin wasn't able to see much behind them.

Suddenly they came into a broader path and were surrounded on both sides by steep cliffs, half hidden by the trees. Merlin pushed the horse harder now that the ground was more even and there were more space and gave her longer reins to stretch out her neck.

"Merlin!" A voice ripped through the air. Merlin turned around to see Arthur just before the thick growth of trees. "Merlin, wait!"

But Merlin urged on the horse again and the prince set off after them. Merlin knew they were unable to outrun him so he turned around the horse by half, his eyes met with Arthur's. Then he reached out his hand and spoke the words from the old language. The cliffs around them started roaring followed by explosions. The last he saw of his prince was his betrayed expression. "Merlin, NO!" the prince shouted but the way was already blocked by the big stone blocks, but he could still hear Arthur's screams for him. With a sigh he dropped his shoulders. This was not how he wanted Arthur to find out about his magic. But not much went as he wanted. He urged on the horse again in a short gallop, it would take hours for Arthur and his men to find another way round, if they found a way at all so to say so they didn't need to hurry much now. He was going to miss that clotpole of a prat prince. The words that they were two sides of the same coin and he was the one that could help Arthur to the way of being a king and restore magic back to Camelot, to reunite Albion. That he was destined to serve him. Now neither of that would come true, magic would still be banished even when Arthur took the crown; and this because he had saved Freya.

She must have felt his wave of emotions because she placed her hands over his and squeezed gently.

"I thought we could stop by at Ealdor tonight," he said. "We have taken a slight detour and will reach it just after dusk I believe." Freya didn't come with any disagreements so on the next crossroad Merlin stirred the horse rightwards. In case Arthur may pick up their trail again they occasionally rode in circles or rode at a sideway only to ride back the same way again to create dead ends. And if they found a stream of water they rode in that a mile or so, to make the dogs lose their trace. Fortunately they didn't face Arthur again. Not even the barks of the dogs were audible. Maybe Arthur had ridden back to Camelot? But Merlin doubted that. Arthur was probably going to search for them even harder now that he knew about Merlin's magic.

They stopped for supper a few miles away from the village. The sun had now started to set and coloured the sky sapphire blue.

"If you want, we could wait here until midnight has passed so we can see how the necklace will work,"

Freya nodded gratefully, looking much relieved.

"What's in Ealdor?" she wanted to know.

"It's the place where I grew up and my mother still lives there. I thought we could get you some clothes there.

"Are you sure we should go there in the middle of the night then?"

"It's a small village and it will only raise suspicions if strangers walk in, and some of them are not so fond of my magic. Last time I was there things didn't turn out all too well. My mother won't disapprove if we come in the middle of the night and none of the villagers will be awake so we can easily sneak in unnoticed. But if we're seen and Arthur comes to search for us there after we've gone they won't tell him anything."

Freya nodded and they finished their meal in silence, waiting for the moon to rise, and to find out whether or not the amulet would work.

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**A/N: Here it is, as promised. One chapter a day. Next chapter will be up tomorrow :)**


	3. Chapter 3

With his eyes widening, Arthur saw Merlin reached out his hand, and said words in a language the prince didn't understand. He was close enough to see his servant's eyes flash golden.

"No…" he whispered to himself. It couldn't be, and then the cliffs around them exploded with a thundering roar.

"Merlin NO!" the prince shouted as big pieces of rocks fell down and blocked the road, completely separating him from Merlin and the druid girl.

A rush of emotion flooded over Arthur. Merlin was a sorcerer. And he had never said anything. Anger and betrayal boiled inside the young prince. Magic was forbidden in Camelot and yet they had a sorcerer under their own roof, walking amongst them every day. Arthur had thought of Merlin as a friend. How could he be so stupid? Merlin was nothing but a lousy servant, who happened to turn out to be a sorcerer on top of that.

Arthur rode back to his men. He had asked them to wait a bit behind because he had thought if he came alone he may had been able to talk some sense into Merlin, and make him come back to Camelot. He had even considered letting the druid girl go free, even if she had killed innocent people.

"Who could have thought that boy would have magic," he heard Leon say behind him with surprise and fascination in his voice. Great, the knights had seen it too. The other knights were behind them too, and Arthur wondered how many of them who had seen what had happened. By the looks on their faces most of them had indeed seen it.

"My Lord, what will we do?" Leon asked.

"We will go to Ealdor. Merlin will most likely take the druid there, because he will think they are safe once they are over the border,"

"But my lord, Ealdor is in Essetir, Cenred's realm. It would be declaring to walk in there. Can't we intercept them and catch them before they reach the borders?"

Arthur wondered if Leon still thought that as soon as Merlin and the druid were in Essetir they weren't Camelot's problem anymore, "Ealdor is so close to the border Cendred wouldn't bother about it," he answered. Cendred had never bothered about the smaller outlying villages. But he also knew that Cendred would bother very much if it came to his knowledge that the prince of Camelot was within his kingdom, "And we don't know where they will cross the border,"

"But we can't be sure they will be going to Ealdor either,"

Arthur knew Leon was right, but he had a feeling Merlin and the druid would be going to Ealdor. It was too obvious that they were going there, which Merlin was well aware of and therefore he thought Arthur wouldn't go there.

"We're going to Ealdor!"

And with those words it was decided. The prince and his men set off towards the borders and Ealdor. Arthur only hoped his suspicions were true, that Merlin would actually take the druid girl to his home village. He decided not to mention Merlin had magic, as he still felt conflicted about it. It wasn't the magic itself that bothered Arthur. Even if his father had banned it, he himself didn't think magic as something pure evil. He was angry because of the fact that Merlin had lied to him all this time. Friends don't lie to each other. But a tiny part of him could understand why Merlin had kept it a secret. Why would he tell it if he knew telling the truth would kill him? But Arthur wouldn't have him executed if the boy had ever told him, would he? He wondered if Gaius knew. It wouldn't surprise him if the old physician did know about it. After all, he did have some knowledge about magic and would therefore be the one most understanding. Also, he and Merlin lived in the same quarters; Merlin had probably revealed it by mere mistake. Most likely because his carelessness or clumsiness.

They reached the borders by early afternoon. Arthur halted his horse.

"Are you really sure about this?" Leon asked. At first, Arthur didn't answer. During the day he had grown uncertain if they really should go to Ealdor. He didn't want to wake suspicions in the village or worry Hunith in vain. But his feeling that Merlin would come here still remained strong inside him, so he nodded. They urged on the horses into a gallop and rode into Essetir. Not long after they reached the little village and they slowed down the horses to a walk. The people there gave them dark suspicious glares as they rode pass.

Hunith stepped out of the door when they neared her house.

"What's all this about?" she asked, looking around at them, her face turning worried, "Where's Merlin?" Arthur saw several thoughts about what could have happened to her son running through her head.

"Your son is alive, Hunith," Arthur began, seeing the woman breath out in relief, but then narrowed her eyes by the fact he had used the word 'alive', not 'fine'. It told her something had happened and that she may not like to hear what it was.

"Merlin freed a captured druid girl and helped her escape from Camelot and we have reasons to think they have come here. The druid is very dangerous and we'd like to find them both as soon as possible,"

"Well, they haven't," Hunith answered shortly, "You can search here however much you want, but you won't find them," she looked a little calmed down to hear her son wasn't hurt, but still looked worried.

Arthur knew she may be lying in order to protect Merlin and the druid, so he dismounted and took two knights with him, "Search the other houses and nearby areas," he ordered as he passed Hunith to enter her house. He knew it was a bit too far so search through all the other houses, but Merlin and the druid could easily be hiding in someone else's house, and the prince would not take the risk to let them escape just because his men didn't search through the right house.

"As I said, you are not going to find them here. I don't even see a reason why they should come here at all," Hunith said and followed after him into the house. Arthur stood by the door from where he had a good view over most part of the house, while the other two knights did the searching.

Hunith stood close by and observed him. He could see she was still worried, "What are you going to do when you find them?"

It hit Arthur that Hunith wasn't worried by the fact that Merlin was with a druid, but for what Arthur might do to them. He hesitated. The punishment for wielding magic, or helping someone with magic was death and he knew that Hunith knew it. Yet he couldn't bring himself to say those words, to explain to her why he had to do it. His father had executed hundreds and hundreds and even more people of magic in front of their family without blinking. He himself had sentenced people to death, so why was it so hard now? When he searched for the answer inside his mind he found a tiny little voice saying that Merlin still was his friend, even if he had been lying about having magic and had freed the druid. He looked at Hunith; a pleading look was plastered over her face. Arthur then realised, Merlin was the only thing Hunith had. Taking Merlin away from her would mean she had nothing in the world left. It was something he had never thought about before. Before it had just been executing a sorcerer; he had never seen it as an execution of a person that had family and friends, a person that was loved. He had never thought about it, until this very moment. It's because Merlin is your friend, the little voice said again. It means that not only does Hunith lose her son, but you lose a friend. A friend you've seen as your best friend.

"I'm not sure yet," he then admitted and looked down.

"Just please don't harm him," she begged silently.

He looked at her again. He knew if he promised that, it would be a promise he may not be able to keep. As soon as Uther found out about Merlin's magic he would have the boy executed. Even if many of Arthur's men would agree to keep it secret from his father, there were those who followed Uther and would go straight to him and tell about Merlin as soon as they were back in Camelot. As long as Merlin was in Camelot his days or even minutes, would be counted. And it was then a small conclusion started forming inside his head. He realised he both wanted to have Merlin at his side, so that he would be able to protect him. But he also knew as long as Merlin was in Camelot, nothing could protect him from Uther.

"Hunith," he said quietly, "Please, if Merlin is here, I promise him no harm will come to him. But that druid is dangerous," even if Merlin may have magic, the druid was cursed, a monster, and could easily harm him, or even kill him as she had done with the people of Camelot.

"Arthur I swear, they aren't here,"

Arthur nodded with a sigh. His men had finished the search without finding anything. When they came out the other men had return empty handed.

"They are not here," He mounted his horse again, and nodded a good bye to Hunith and he and his men trotted out from the village, "We will wait outside the village over the night,"

This time Leon didn't come with any arguments. But Arthur read on the knight's face that he wasn't pleased over the idea.

They stopped not far away from the village, and now the sun had started to set. They ate the rest of the deer they have had for lunch. It wasn't much and when it was gone he was still hungry. But there wasn't anything he could do about it, both he and the men was too tired to hunt down something more.

Around midnight, when the moon reached its highest point, a big creature flied out of the treetops not too far away from them. Arthur didn't see it until the big, black creature flew before the moon. The other men had seen it too and gasped nervously, afraid that the creature would be able smell their scents and find them.

"Is that the druid?" Leon asked and Arthur nodded, "It looks like it,"

"Let's hope it doesn't find us,"

"It doesn't look like it's coming any closer," Arthur said. And he was right. The creature just flew round and round for a long while before flying downwards, into the treetops. Probably to land and transform back to human form again he guessed.

"Should we go to them now?"

"No, once the she's back in human form again, they will go to Ealdor and we are too close to the village now to risk creating a scene that would wake the village up."

He surprised himself by saying that they should wait. He had thought they would take the chance and catch Merlin and the druid girl as soon as it was given, but something told him they should wait until Merlin and the druid left Ealdor with following and catching them.

Behind him the men sigh loudly in protest. They all wanted to go home, to sleep and have proper meals. Arthur realised none of them had had a proper meal since supper last night. Usually when they would be gone over a longer time, they always were prepared with food and other necessities. But no one had thought that this search would take this long.

Most of the men went to sleep when they knew they would be here for the rest of the night. Arthur took the first watch. Alone with his thoughts he pondered over two ideas. Once they caught up with Merlin and the druid he could either bring them back to Camelot which would mean the death of them, or he could let them go. Either way he would lose Merlin and never see him again. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't see any way where Merlin would still be by his side when this was over. It filled him with a lump in his chest.

When the sun started rising he realised he had forgot to wake Leon up to switch watcher. But he had also made his decision. He knew what he had to do when they caught up with Merlin and the girl. Just the thought of it made him unexplainably sad.

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**A/N: As promised, here's chapter three. If nothing comes in the way the next chapter will be up tomorrow.  
**

**So what do you guys think? **


	4. Chapter 4

The moon climbed up on the sky and was right above them and the transformation started. It was both terrifying and fascinating. A few seconds later the bastet stood in front of him, growling lowly from the throat. When he changed to a more comfortable position it twisted its head towards him and fixed him with its yellow eyes and the growling rose to a roaring.

"It's okay, it's me, Merlin," he said soothingly with his arms stretched out. Uncertainly the bastet stepped closer and sniffed on his finger and then pressed its head into his palm, just like an ordinary cat does. He laughed and scratched it behind its ear and it started humming and it took Merlin several moments to realize it was purring, but because of its size it was much deeper and louder than a cat's purr.

"The necklace seems to work," Merlin commented, feeling a little proud over himself. He wandered what Gaius would say if he knew he had managed to create a magical amulet. Probably he would call Merlin mad for taking such risks, dealing with such powerful magic. They had talked a little about magical amulets and how they were created after the visit of the witch hunter Aredian and when Morgause had given that bracelet to Morgana that had stopped her nightmares. Gaius had warned him about trying to create magic amulets, because if created the wrong way, the results could end up devastating.

The bastet fluttered impatiently with her wings.

"It's okay, you can take a fly if you want," Merlin smiled. "I'll wait here until you come back,"

The basted roared gratefully and with a few powerful hit with its wings it was up in the air. It looked so happy and free as it flew around there, its roar filling the air. He watched as it flew in loops, made narrow dives only to shoot up like an arrow again, just before hitting the ground, and chasing a flock of screeching bats. Merlin wasn't particularly worried if it flew out of his sight. It was big and could defend itself and he knew Freya wouldn't leave him.

When time was up the basted landed and transformed back to Freya. She had the brightest smile he had ever seen pasted on her face and she literally flung into his arms kissing him all over the face.

"That was the one most amazing thing I ever done. I've never felt so free in my whole life! You should have seen the view. The world never seemed to have an end and everything looked so tiny underneath me. Oh Merlin thank you so much!" She was so happy that she cried and laughed at the same time and Merlin found that incredibly cute and her laugh was so contagious he couldn't stop himself from laughing too. He hugged her tightly and kissed her back, her lips salty from her tears and also a hint of iron taste from blood; she must have caught some bats or birds while flying around.

"You have done so much for me, how can I ever return it to you?"

"Seeing you so happy is more than enough," he said and kissed her again.

"Could we maybe go to Ealdor now?" she smiled shyly. "It's a bit cold."

"Oh yes, of course!" he quickly rewrapped his jacket around her. She had taken it off during the transformation and then he also wrapped a blanket around her.

"It's not that cold," she giggled but tucked the blanket tighter around her body. He quickly gathered their things and then they mounted the horse and trotted the way down to Ealdor.

The village was as Merlin had said, empty. Everyone was inside sleeping, but here and there a cat passed their way. They dismounted outside Hunith's house and Merlin tied the horse at the inside of the fence. He unsaddled the mare and laid down saddle and bags on the ground beside her. No one was going to steal it anyway. All the villagers here knew each other and stealing never passed anyone's mind. They stuck together, which meant helping each other, not stealing. Carefully he opened the door and Freya nervously clasped his hand in hers.

"Who's there?" a voice whispered sharply as he closed the door behind them.

"Mother?" Merlin whispered at the same time as something hit him at the back of his head, not very hard and the thing didn't feel hard either, behind him Freya gasped and dug her fingers in his arm. "Mother, it's us,"

"Merlin?" Hunith quickly lit some candles and light filled the room. In one of her hands she held a long loaf of bread.

"You're hitting me with bread?" he chuckled. "Not very effective if we would have been burglars, would it?"

She looked down at the bread and with a blush she laid it down on the table. "I grabbed the first thing, hoping it would be something heavier," she explained. "And what's going on? I've been so worried! Arthur was here this afternoon searching for you, claiming that you were with a druid girl, and when I heard noises outside, I thought…" then she noticed Freya hiding behind Merlin.

"Mother, this is Freya," he took a step aside so Hunith could see her better and gently put a hand on the druid's back, just between her shoulder blades. She looked a split second on Hunith before looking down her hands that where now playing with some fringes on the blanket that she still wore around her shoulder.

"Hi there," Hunith smiled warmly, "I'm Hunith, Merlin's mother and I don't have a habit hitting my son, but he doesn't have the habit stamping inside in the middle of the night either," she gave Merlin another look, saying that she knew something had happened and wanted to know exactly why Arthur was looking for them and why Freya was with him in the first place.

"Come and sit and tell what have happened. I'll make you some tea." Merlin led Freya to the kitchen table and sat her down at the sofa. She nudged his shirt arm as to say that she wanted him to sit next to her, which he already was about to do. Curiously she looked around while Merlin lit some more candles on the table and he felt she started to relax a little again, but was still a little tense.

"Are you hungry?" Hunith asked when she placed three cups of tea on the table. Merlin looked at Freya and she shook her head. "No, we're fine," he said. So she sat down at the chair opposite to them. She regarded them for a moment with a little smile. Freya had snuggled up against Merlin with her tea in her hands.

"It's nice to see you again, and to meet you too Freya," Freya looked suspiciously up by the sound of her name but dared to smile shyly back at Hunith. Then she yawned and snuggled up tighter against Merlin. Her hair tickled him on his chin.

"Want to tell me what happened? It scared the wits out of me when Arthur came here with what looked like half of all knights of Camelot and looked here for you. He never said what the problem was, just that you had freed a druid girl he claimed being dangerous."

"Freya isn't dangerous, they just thinks she is, because she's a druid," Merlin thought it was better to not tell about Freya's curse, for everyone's sake and he thought it would be a little too much information for his mother at the moment, but in other circumstances he knew she would have taken in pretty well, "It started a few days ago, when some kind of hunter came to Camelot with a cage and Freya was in it. Gaius explained that Uther is paying men for capturing druids," he cast an uncertain glance at Freya, but she had fallen asleep.

"Come, I'll help you put her to bed, poor girl is exhausted."

"It's been a long day," Merlin said.

In silence they put Freya to bed and made sure she was comfortable enough and retreated to the kitchen table. Without any more wait he picked up from where the conversation was interrupted. "So Uther pays men to capture druids and God knows what he does to them. He probably tortures them until they tell him about the druids' hidings and then kill them, and I couldn't let him do that to Freya..."

"And you saved her even if you knew the trouble you would be in if you got caught." Hunith said with warmth and proudness in her voice. "You have always had a good heart,"

"She's innocent, she hasn't done anything wrong. I can't just sit and do nothing while Uther does all these things against her."

Hunith tilted her head. "But that's not the only reason you rescued her?"

Merlin hesitated, "It could have been me, in there, in that cage. Terrified with no idea on what was going on. And…" he hesitated again, casting a look towards where Freya was sleeping.

"You like her," Hunith said with a warm smile. She didn't seem angry at all that her son might end up with a druid. He himself had magic after all. And people in small villages, like Ealdor, had never shared the point of view on magic that most people in Camelot have. They didn't see magic as something evil, but nor did they see it as something good. Because they couldn't fully understand it they were therefore a little suspicious against it.

"It took time to gain her trust," he confessed.

"She seems to trust you now."

"A little at least, I don't know if she trusts me fully yet. But then, I don't know exactly what happened to her before Halig arrived at Camelot, but I doubt it was very luxurious and her suspiciousness is nothing but understandable."

"She's lucky to have you," Hunith said which made Merlin blush a little, followed by silence, so he decided to continue the story. "Things went for the situation pretty smooth, but Halig was suspicious and he actually got very close on our heels. I was lucky to have Arthur to save me from him, but," he stopped for a split second, not sure if he should mention Freya's curse, but decided it was better not to, "things escalated and Freya got wounded. It's okay, She's fine now I healed her," he said at the shocked expression on his mother's face, "and we fled Camelot with Arthur and his men after us and it took some time to shake them off, we would have been here earlier if it wasn't for that."

"How did you get rid of them?" When Merlin didn't answer, Hunith sighed. "Where are you going now? Uther would want both your heads and it's too risky to stay here. Ealdor is too close to Camelot. You shouldn't even have come here in the first place. Arthur could be waiting for you to come here and catch you when you're far enough away from here,"

"I'm not sure yet. I think we'll follow the boundaries for a while until we're enough far away from Camelot. We'll leave directly after breakfast tomorrow, and euhm…. But the reason we stopped by, Freya needs clothes. It wasn't enough time to get her proper ones back at Camelot and we couldn't risk stopping and steal something anywhere else."

"No of course. And I think I might have something that will suit her. Is it anything else you need?"

"Thanks, I don't think so. We have food for a couple of days more, so we should be fine."

"You should get some sleep too. You look like you haven't slept for days,"

Merlin nodded and gave his mother a goodnight hug and went to creep down underneath his blankets next to Freya. In silence he regarded her sleeping. She looked more peaceful than he had ever seen her. He blew out the candle he had brought with him and made himself comfortable and closed his eyes. Since he was exhausted in both mind and body sleep came quickly and he slept dreamlessly through the rest of the night.

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**A/N: So here's chapter 4, a little happier than last chapter. And I have to admit, this fic is not going to be 4 chapters as I had said in the beginning. it's going to be 6 chapters, the last one will be sort of a short epiloge. I don't know if I'll publish both at the same time or stick with the one chapter a day.  
**


	5. Chapter 5

It was still dark when Merlin woke Freya up, but through the window only the faintest light far in the horizon could be seen. Freya looked so peaceful in her sleep and it was with reluctance that Merlin shook her shoulder to wake her up, but they had to leave before the village woke up.

She slowly opened her eyes, blinking a few times and looked around before her eyes found him. Then she gave him a tiny smile.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Much better," she said sleepily and sat up.

He leaned forward as gave her a light kiss on her mouth. "Come, let's get some breakfast."

On the kitchen table laid a little pile of clothes. "They're for you," Hunith said. She had brought in their saddles bags and was filling them with food, even though Merlin had said she needn't do that.

"You can change while I make breakfast," he told Freya and hung a cauldron over the fireplace and lit the fire. As the gentleman he was he made sure to have his back turned against Freya as she suspiciously examined the clothes. She made sure she was out of view from the windows before she let Merlin's jacket, which she was still wearing, and the dress fall to the floor. Merlin tried to fight the urge to steal a glance over his shoulder with concentrating on stirring the porridge, which however acquired little from the mind, so one time he couldn't help but look.

"Don't peek!" Freya immediately shouted. He turned around again and awkwardly tried to look to be very focused on the porridge, but there had been a hint of amusement in her voice and then said, "You stupid." He chuckled.

"What do you think?" Freya finally said and Merlin could turn around. She now had a beige shirt that was kept in place with a brown belt, and slim black trousers and dark boots. She looked a little worried down at herself; obviously not used to having whole clothes again, but Merlin smiled, "You look beautiful."

She smiled uncertainly, "Really?"

"Really," he assured her as he poured up the porridge in two bowls and set them on the table. Hunith said she would eat later. Freya smiled and took up the jacket and the dress from the floor. "What shall I do with the dress?" she asked while she put the jacket back on, she seemed to be very fond of it, and took a seat and began to eat.

"Oh, just hang it over a chair. I'll take care of it later," Hunith said.

Freya nodded, "And thank you so much, you're really sure you want to give away such nice clothes…"

"Don't you think about it child. I have no use of them anyway," Hunith smiled, "and you two will be fine?"

"Of course we will." Merlin assured his mother and cleared the table. They needed to leave soon. They had already stayed longer than they should have and he didn't want to risk his mother's safety with staying too long with the risk that Arthur could come back here and find them.

"But be careful out there okay?" Hunith said in a motherly tone.

"Of course we will," he hugged her.

She followed them out to say the last good byes.

Quickly Merlin saddled the horse and hugged his mother a last time. Hunith stretched her arms out for Freya, who let her, after a quick glance at Merlin, embrace her in a hug.

To be as quiet as possible as to not wake the villagers up, they led the horse through the village. Everything was completely still; all that was heard were the soft thuds from the horse's hooves hitting the ground and birds that sang their morning song. A light haze hung over the ground, making the grass damp. None of them spoke a word until they were out in the forest again. And it was Freya who broke the silence, just before they mounted the horse, "Thanks for not telling my secret last night,"

"I didn't want to worry mother too much. Having whole of Camelot at our heels is enough worry for her. Besides," He said, stroking Freya's cheek, she leaned her head towards his hand, "it wouldn't make any difference whether she would know or not, you would still be the same person to her."

"But wouldn't she see me as a monster?"

"Her own son has magic, she has more perspective than most people, so no, she wouldn't, and you know why? You're not a monster Freya. You're my friend, that's all she cares about," he helped her up in the saddle and mounted up behind her.

The day was beautiful and uneventful. They decided to ride deeper into Essetir to avoid knights from Camelot. Merlin didn't knew how deep into Essetir Arthur dared to go, but he could search for them close to the border and Merlin didn't want to risk that Arthur would see them if they were too close to it. And if they met anyone here in Essetir he could just say they were from Ealdor and wanted to find the luck somewhere else. No one would question it if people left small villagers to seek work somewhere else. But even so, they kept to smaller paths, the less attention the better.

They stopped in middle of the day to water the horse and let her rest and had themselves a quick lunch on bread and cheese before they continued the journey. While resting on the food, Freya plucked flowers and braided them into a garland. Merlin observed with interest as she quickly braided one flower into the other. When she thought the length of it was good, she tied the ends together. She then placed it on Merlin's head.

"Am I beautiful now?"

"Yes, but it's too small for your head," she giggled.

"That's unfortunate," he said and took the garland of his head and placed it on Freya's head instead, "But fortunately, it fits you perfectly," he smiled. She giggled again. He let his fingers slip from the flower garland, down her hair and then gently stroking her cheek. His hand stopped there, cupping her cheek and she placed her own hand over it, smiling up at him.

"You really are beautiful," he said and placed a light kiss on her lips.

As the day grew older, Merlin began to have this uncomfortable feeling, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. He didn't want to tell Freya about it because he didn't want to worry her. She seemed to be in a very good mood at the moment, humming a little ditty and plucking flowers along the path as they walked, and he didn't want to ruin it. She had grown tired of riding, and of being locked in a cage for a time, and wanted to walk. He could only imagine how she felt right now, so free. Her happiness was contagious but he couldn't shake of that uncomfortable feeling that was nagging him.

"What are you singing?" he asked, in a try to push the feeling to the side.

"It's a children's song my mother taught me when I was little. It doesn't have any words, or at least I don't remember them, but I like the melody,"

"Well it's beautiful," he said.

"You should have heard my mother when she sang it. It sounded really magical," she smiled. "Did Hunith ever sing you any songs?"

"Yeah," he frowned as he searched through his childhood memories, "There's one that she particularly used to sing," he started humming on it and added the words to it as the memory came back. It was about a man who had met a woman but they couldn't be together because the man was haunted by the king's men because of this special ability he had, the ability communicate and control dragons. The man had to leave the woman with the promise he would be coming back. When she never heard of him, she spent her whole life thinking the man dead. But she still had patiently waited for him, until the one day when she was very old, he had returned riding on a majestic dragon and they had flew away together in the orange sunset, towards the sun, closer and closer to it.

"It's sad," Freya said when he finished, "But a very beautiful song too,"

"Yeah, but she told me I would rather hear this rather than other songs,"

As the sun started to set, they found a little glade to stop for the night. Merlin lit a fire and started preparing a stew. He still hadn't gotten rid of that feeling that something was wrong and he kept looking over his shoulder into the shadows. Freya noticed it, "What's wrong?" she asked after having observed him for a while.

"Nothing," he tried shrugging it off and to put his focus on the stew.

She regarded him, "You've been acting weird ever since lunch," she pointed out. "What's the matter?"

"Really, it's…" she fixed him with her eyes and he sighed, "I just have a feeling, that's all,"

"What about?"

"I don't even know, if feels bad, but I don't know what it is."

"Maybe it's just your brain spooking you after all what'd happened?"

"You're probably right," he said.

She smiled, but then said, "You should have said something earlier,"

"What, that I had a feeling? Besides, you were so happy and I didn't want to worry you about something that maybe wasn't even going to happen," he handed her a bowl of stew and they ate in silence. The darkness surrounded them with nothing happening. By midnight Freya had her transformation, and it was then things started to go wrong. Freya was just about to fly up in the sky when the sound of a twig breaking echoed through the otherwise completely silent forest. The second after it was filled with sounds, and before he could do anything Merlin was tackled down to the ground, his arms painfully bent behind his back. He tried to wrestle out from the grip, but it was too strong and he was lifted to his feet. Freya was roaring and made attempts to leap on their attackers but was kept back by pointing swords.

"You do anything, he dies," A familiar voice said. Arthur. Merlin turned his head to face him. Arthur had pointed his finger on him. His threat seemed to have an effect on Freya because she obediently sat down, but a low growl was coming from her throat. "And for you," Arthur turned to Merlin, "Use magic and she dies."

Merlin glared at him, but kept his spell he had worked up in his head.

"Good, and now that I have your attention, I need to speak with you." He nodded to the person behind Merlin to let go of his arms, but the knights' swords were still pointing at Freya.

"She's not going to attack you," Merlin said, and with a look from him they reluctantly lowered their weapons, but didn't let the bastet go with their eyes for even a second.

Arthur made a gesture and they all sat down. "First of all," he said, "I'm not going to take you back to Camelot,"

Surprised Merlin tilted his head and frowned, "Why? And what's the point following us then?" He had thought that since Arthur knew about his magic, the prince would fight even harder to bring them back to Camelot and put them to justice.

"I've had some thinking," Arthur began, "I'm not bringing you back because I don't want to see you dead. And the reason I followed you, we may have lost your tracks when you blocked the path but it was obvious you would go to Ealdor so we picked up the trace from there, is because I want you to know that I am not my father. I don't share his hate for magic, or not to his extent. But I'm going to put my betrayed feelings aside and warn you, for your both own sake, to not return to Camelot. I wasn't the only one that saw your magic Merlin and rumours travels fast. When my father knows about you, and come to understand that you freed the druid girl-"

"Freya," Merlin interrupted him.

"That you freed Freya," Arthur corrected himself, "You are both dead the moment you step over Camelot's borders."

"You know we already know that," Merlin said. "That's not the reason you're here is it?"

"No… thing is, you have been the worst servant Camelot have ever had the misfortune to have," which made Merlin chuckle. Arthur continued, "But you were different from the other servants, the way you treated me from the very beginning… you have been the closest friend I ever had."

"You don't mean that,"

"Yes I do! And I guess… I wish you and…Freya good luck."

Realisation hit Merlin, "You actually followed us, your servant, to say good bye?"

"Yes, is it something wrong with that?"

"No it's just that… you're a prat, and a clotpole, and you don't do stuff like this."

"Dollophead," Arthur shoots back. They grinned at each other and got to their feet again. "I'm going to miss you, even if you were a terrible servant," Arthur placed a hand on Merlin's shoulder and squeezed tightly. Then, to Merlin's big surprise, the prince dragged him into his arms embraced him into a very tight, rib cracking and breath taking hug. But Merlin quickly gathered himself, "And I'm going to miss having a clotpole in my life," he said as soon as Arthur let him go and he could breathe without problem again, "What will you tell Uther? He'll probably be furious when you return without us,"

"I'll make something up," Arthur shrugged, "Good bye then, Merlin. I really hope our paths will cross again, under friendly circumstances of course." He gave Merlin another hug and then turned to Freya. "Take care of this dollophead, will you?"

Freya hummed in what sounded affirmative.

Arthur looked a long time on Merlin, his face full of sadness and pain, "Good bye, Merlin," he then said a final time with a thick voice, and then the prince and the knights were gone. Merlin starred after them long after they'd disappeared in the dark. A big lump had formed in his throat, and tears silently fell down his cheeks. He hoped with all his heart that Arthur's words would sometime in the future turn out to be true, that they would meet under friendly circumstances. But he doubted that would ever happen. Not as long as Uther was the king, or magic banned from Camelot. He knew Arthur would try to talk to his father about this. But Uther would never give in. And Merlin couldn't know if Arthur would ever allow magic again once he took the crown. If he did, then Merlin and Freya may return to Camelot one day. If Arthur didn't, Merlin was never going to see the prat again. And it made his heart, his whole chest ache so much he found it hard to breathe. He was surprised that he was reacting this strong. It wasn't like he and Arthur had known each other for an awful long time, and Arthur had been a complete arrogant prat. But Merlin was going to miss him so, so much.

Freya pressed her body against his and hummed lowly to comfort him. He answered with placing a hand on the bastet's head and scratched it behind its ears.

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**A/N:So this story is almost finished. I only have the little epiloge left. Thank you guys for reading this fic, and following, reviewing and favoriting, it really means the world to me.**

**And yepp, Merlin's nursery rhyme is partly inspired by Hunith and Balinor.**

**So what do you guys think? The good bye scene was the hardest part to write in this fic and i really feel for Arthur and Merlin.  
**

**But i will publish the epiloge thing either later today or tomorrow.**


	6. Chapter 6

The next day they started to ride early and followed the path north east, and were slow but steady coming closer to the mountains. Merlin's heart was still heavy after the good bye with Arthur, and most of the day they rode in quiet. It wasn't an awkward silence, but a pleasant one. After yesterday, none of them felt like talking, and they didn't feel the need for it either. Instead they just enjoyed one another's company. And now that Arthur wasn't after them anymore they had no need to avoid certain parts or ride fast in order to avoid discovery.

They had come to an open field with a pleasant view where they had a viewing point of several kilometres, and decided to follow a little river with cheerful purling (or is rippling better?) water, flooding down from the mountains. Further ahead of them they spotted some deer drinking of it, which fled away as soon as they noticed Merlin and Freya appearing.

Around dusk they reached a glade by the foot of a small mountain. Underneath the mountain a little lake twinkled in the setting sun, from which the river they had followed all day flooded from. By the foot of the lake was a little cottage. It didn't look like someone was living there; trees and bushes were overgrown, the little barn looked half in disrepair with half of its roof gone, no crops seemed to be grown. The little house looked in a need of a makeover too.

But Freya shone up when she saw the view, "What a beautiful place!" she smiled. Excitedly she climbed down from the horse and ran towards the little house and disappeared into it. Merlin laughed to himself at her happiness. He dismounted and tied the horse to a nearby tree, and then set off after Freya. As he had thought, the house was uninhabited. It didn't look like anyone other than wild animals had been living here for a very long time and it certainly needed to be renovated. All the furniture was covered in thick layers of dust. By a closer look most stuff were chewed broken by rats and other animals, and their droppings were scattered all round over the floor and spider webs covered every single corner of the house. There were several holes in the roof and in the big bedroom they found a bird's nest. At first glance it looked empty, but when they came closer they saw it was filled with eggs.

"I wonder who lived here, and why they aren't here anymore," Freya said, undisturbed by the house's condition. Instead she looked around on every inch of the house with great interest.

"I don't know. But it doesn't look like they left by any force," even if the little house was in a bad shape, no traces that violence ever taken place here were shown. It looked like the people here had just walked out and never returned. The late sun shone through the windows, filling the little house with warmth and making patches of light on the floor.

Freya picked up an old doll that was placed on one of the shelves on the walls, "I used to have a doll like this. But it had brown hair, not yellow. I had gotten it from my mother, and she had gotten it from hers," Freya smiled sadly at the memory, "Do you think kids lived here?"

"There's always the possibility," he could easily see this place with children, their small bare feet running over the floor as they played around with each other during loud laughs, and their parents telling them to be still, but for no use.

"This place looks to have been so wonderful once. Can we stay here? Please?" Freya danced around, moving into the kitchen, then turned around and looked hopefully at him. He didn't see any reason not to stay. No one would claim this house and they were on a safe distance from Camelot. And this place seemed to remind her of her childhood home. Even if this place wasn't in the best condition, they could easily fix it. And once it was fixed this would be a lovely home.

"Why not?" he said and with a beam Freya threw herself around his neck and kissed him, "Thank you!"

"But we're going to have a lot of work to do before this place is inhabitable, but I think I already know one thing that we can grow… strawberries," he grinned and her face cracked up in an even wider smile than before, "We're going to make this the perfect place!" she said.

"As long as I'm with you, any place in the world is going to be perfect," he said sincerely. It was true, it wouldn't matter if they had to be on the move for the rest of their lives, or lived here. They were together, and that was all that mattered to him.

"You stupid," she smiled uncertainly. She had still not got used having someone being nice to her. After losing her parents, and being given away to a bounty hunter by her own people that were supposed to protect her, she had had no one. Love and trust haven't been too present in her life, but he was going to make sure that that was changed. Every day he would make sure that she felt loved, and that she would never be alone ever again.

He leaned closer and kissed her. But this time it was a longer kiss. He felt her surprise at first, but then she responded to the kiss, her hand trailing up to his hair, pushing him closer to herself, almost as if she was afraid to lose him. But too soon they broke the kiss, slowly and reluctantly. For a long time they stood in each other's arms, just looking at one another.

"Do you really mean it?" Freya then asked, still a little uncertain.

"Of course I do! It doesn't matter where we are, what's important is that we are together. You know why? Because I love you,"

She blushed and looked down for a few seconds before looking up at him again, with her dark brown eyes sparkling, "I love you too,"

Another kiss and then, with arms around each other, they went outside to plan their future and watch the sun's last journey before it was completely gone under the horizon.

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**A/N: Sorry for the late update guys! but i started adding some stuff on this and had it sent to my beta on thursday, and yesterday a friend came over here to stay over the weekend but here it finally is, the last chapter. Merlin and Freya finally got their happy ending! **

**And thank you for reading this story, and reviewing, following and favoriting. It really meant a lot to me!**


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